Alternative Title for this chapter was Kyle, the Extrovert.
The windows of the blue hatchback lowered.
When he peeked over Kyle’s shoulder, Yichen saw that it was a group of five people, all young adults. Four men and one woman, all no more than a few years older than Yichen and Kyle.
The group of five saw that two of them were squished together in the driver’s seat and couldn’t help but give the two a few looks of confusion.
Understanding the awkwardness of the scene, Yichen shifted himself, and with a good grip, he managed to stuff the deadweight—Kyle—into the passenger seat.
“Okay, okay! Be careful—Ow! Watch the leg, the leg!” Despite how spent he felt physically, Kyle’s mouth was very lively and complained nonstop about Yichen’s rough treatment.
The group of five must’ve been surprised by Yichen’s show of strength; the shock was apparent on their faces. While Yichen’s strength was nothing compared to Kyle in his best condition, it had a large juxtaposition with his small build.
Their looks of amazement quickly receded.
The driver, a man with dark, shoulder-length hair that was tied-up into a man bun, spoke first.
“Hey, we have a place a couple of blocks down. It’s pretty safe. Let’s exchange information?”
Yichen was a little hesitant, but Kyle—the ever chipper camper—showed no aversion.
“Hey!” Kyle greeted, “Sure, we’ll follow you. Lead the way.”
The man who was driving the hatchback gave a curt nod before rolling the window back up. As the other car drove away, Kyle looked to Yichen and saw that the latter was giving him a hard look of disapproval.
“Didn’t Auntie ever tell you not to follow strangers?” Yichen snapped with a small frown.
“Haven’t you ever heard the saying, safety in numbers?” Kyle quipped back. When Yichen didn’t reply, he asked, “Do you… want to switch back with me again?”
“Can you even move?”
“If you give me a moment I can. I’m recovering… just slowly.”
Yichen looked up at the rearview mirror, just in time to see a chunk of the earthen wall fall down. A few decomposed hands clamoured around in the new gap, widening it even further.
“You know what, I think I can manage.” Yichen said, thinking back on Kyle’s driving skills.
“You sure? It’s harder than it looks… do your feet reach?” Kyle grinned widely.
Yichen unceremoniously flipped the bird at the other boy before adjusting the seat and shifting the gears into drive.
***
The house really wasn’t too far away. In fact, Yichen realized that the hatchback hadn’t followed them onto the dirt road. Instead, they were just trying to get back to their base.
The two cars pulled up to a gated driveway of a two-story detached home. Two men from the blue car jumped out and quickly pulled the two sides of the gate apart to let the two cars in before quickly closing it behind them.
“Slower, slower. Dear God, Xiao-Chen! You’re going to crash!”
“Can you please not talk? You are making me nervous… How do you turn this off…”
By the time they had safely parked and turned off the ignition, Kyle had regained his strength. He got out of the car with a jump in his step. Yichen only shook his head at the former’s liveliness.
Their current area was not as deserted as the Su family’s cottage home. They were on the outskirts of a small town, so there were more houses. The properties were closer together as well; however, it was still a quiet, rural neighbourhood. There weren’t too many zombies prowling about in the streets, many were locked up in the houses or their yards.
The house didn’t have a garage, only a carport. They didn’t want to linger out in the open for too long, so the group of five plus Yichen and Kyle quickly went into the house.
They settled down into the living room. It was a clean and simple looking room, bare of any personal décor that indicated its original owner.
The man, who was the driver, whispered into one of his comrades’ ears—a tall man wearing a black baseball cap. The comrade nodded and dragged the person beside him—the person who had shot the fireballs from the car—off somewhere further into the house.
Yichen watched the two men leave, then eyed the remaining three in suspicion. He turned his head towards Kyle and whispered, “You remembered to lock the car right?”
Kyle furrowed his brows. “You were the one driving; you have the key.”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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“Yt, sfj…” Bsif yijcxfv bea, atfc delmxis ktlrqfgfv yjmx, “P atlcx P vlv. Ugfaas regf P vlv.”
Tlmtfc ujnf tlw j ubbv ibbx yfobgf wegweglcu, “Po jcs bo beg raeoo ubfr wlrrlcu P yijwf sbe.”
“Ctfw— ”
Ktflg jguewfca kjr mea rtbga ys atf rbecv bo atf vglnfg mifjglcu tlr atgbja.
“Sorry for not introducing ourselves earlier, it wasn’t the right place for it.” He said with an amicable smile while sitting on the armrest of a couch. “I’m Sasaki, and these are my clubmates.”
He casually spread his arms wide, gesturing to the others beside him. “We’re from the same university club. We were on a group retreat to a hot springs area nearby when… everything happened. Are you two… alone?”
Sasaki was a tall man, but not taller than Kyle. He had a slender build; long legs, long arms, long face. He was wearing a large, black bomber jacket so he looked especially well-built.
“My name is Kyle, and this is Yichen,” Kyle said, tilting his head in Yichen’s direction; Sasaki’s gaze shifted immediately on Yichen’s body. “It’s only the two of us. We were farther up North, staying at his family’s cottage. We’re the only ones left.”
As Kyle explained their circumstances while editing out a few details, Yichen observed the three people lounging on the sofa before them.
Despite his build, Sasaki’s face was average; however, his shifty fox eyes made Yichen wary. Yichen was used to fading behind Kyle’s bright personality, yet Sasaki’s eyes kept flitting towards him; his thoughts, unknown.
At least with the zombie fox, it was easier for Yichen to read its intentions.
He was more familiar with the behaviour of the woman sitting behind Sasaki. Her eyes were glued to Kyle’s face. Even when Kyle had gestured towards him when talking about his family cottage, her gaze didn’t waver.
She was petite, most likely around 157cm. She had short, hazel brown hair that highlighted the doll-like features on her small, round face. Her entire outfit screamed ‘daddy’s good little girl’ which highly contrasted with Sasaki who was sitting before her. She stuck close to Sasaki, making Yichen wonder if they were going out or related.
Sitting on a different couch, hunched over a little anxiously was another man. He was quietly watching Kyle as well. Unlike the girl who was staring at Kyle with curiosity, his eyes were burning with excitement. As if he wanted to ask Kyle something, but was trying to politely wait his turn.
The young man had a build that was bordering on scrawny—not that Yichen should be saying anything. Compared to Yichen’s own beanpole physique, however, he was definitely a bean sprout; it was especially highlighted by his oversized logo tee. He had dirty-blonde, curly hair that was cut short and looked somewhat like a bird’s nest. When paired with his shining grey eyes and smattering of freckles across his pale face, he looked like an innocent child on Christmas morning… or a hyperactive chipmunk.
As Yichen concluded his observations, Kyle had just reached the part where they heard the announcement on the radio.
“You guys have a radio?” The blonde youth asked with an excited tone. He looked ready to pounce forward, only to recoil when everyone looked at him. Yichen saw that he seemed especially nervous under Sasaki’s subtle frown.
“Yea! We found it at Yichen’s place,” Kyle answered smoothly, as if he didn’t feel the underlying tension in the room.
(Yichen surmised that he really hadn’t perceived the odd atmosphere. Kyle could be quite dense sometimes.)
“I see,” Sasaki smoothly answered, as if the chipmu—the young man hadn’t spoken. “So the government has issued an evacuation order huh? Refugee camps you say?”
“Hiroto…” the woman called softly, gripping the back of Sasaki’s bomber jacket. He gave her a nod and patted her hand in reassurance.
“Don’t worry Emi,” he whispered to her, then turned back to face Kyle.
“We all have family in City B, and it sounds like they were probably evacuated there,” Sasaki said, his smile ever-present, “I have a proposal for you.
“It must’ve been quite a hard trip with only the two of you. It’s really awesome and lucky that you’ve gotten here. But you know, luck only goes so far. I mean, in the beginning there were twenty of us who went on the trip and only seven of us escaped that resort. We even lost two of our friends on the road here.”
Sasaki’s voice was full of genuine remorse, but somehow the look in his eyes seemed detached from his tone—it only made Yichen warier.
“As we get closer to the safe areas. We’ll probably encounter more people and more of the infected. It’ll probably be harder to come out unscathed, especially for two kids like you. How about you guys come with us?” Sasaki suggested with a concerned look on his face.
Yichen was about to reject the offer; however, Kyle accepted it in less than a heartbeat.
“That sounds great! To be honest, when we were facing that horde back there, I was already starting to get worried about the rest of our journey. It’s great that we can meet more survivors. The more the merrier—right, Yichen?”
Kyle whipped his head towards Yichen and beamed a bright-eyed look at the latter. Faced with Kyle’s bright smile, Yichen could only swallow back his concerns and give him a small nod.
Kyle finally seemed to notice the odd, worried look on Yichen’s face. However, Sasaki was already announcing the good news to the two returning members of his crew.
***
After the two men returned to the living room, they all sat down gathering around the coffee table in the middle of the living room.
“Right, so let’s introduce ourselves once again,” Sasaki declared with much enthusiasm. “My name is Hiroto Sasaki. My friends usually just call me by my last name, Sasaki. Oh, and I’m a fire-user.”
Kyle and Yichen furrowed their eyebrows in confusion. They weren’t surprised by the term; after all, they had witnessed one of them throwing fireballs at the zombies during the chase.
However, they had clearly remembered that the person who shot the fireballs was one of the two men who had left the room earlier. The man who threw the fireballs was a very memorable person. He was a full head taller than Kyle and very well built. If that wasn’t enough, he also had a head full of ginger hair.
Their confusion was very obvious with the way that the two teens kept staring at the ginger-haired man. At least Kyle’s confusion was very obvious; Yichen’s poker face was well-trained and first-class.
Sasaki chuckled. In a friendly manner, he placed his hand on the shoulder of the ginger-haired man who was seated next to him, “This is Henry Bennett. He was the one throwing the fireballs earlier. He’s also a fire-user.”
Henry had a gruff and casual appearance. He silently gave a curt nod, to which Kyle returned.
He seemed indifferent to the two of them joining the crew; however, Yichen— being skilled in reading others’ microexpressions—could see that the former was slightly impatient.
Sasaki continued the introductions, “The guy next to him is Taehun Im. He’s a water-user.”
The guy with the black baseball cap also gave them a stiff nod, but unlike Henry, Taehun had a softer expression. Taehun was also a very tall person; he was around Kyle’s height, maybe even a little taller. He held himself in a very stern manner, making him seem very unapproachable.
“—and the guy sitting over there is Aaron Hooper.” Sasaki indicated to the scrawny chipmunk who was now sitting beside Yichen.
“A-actually it’s Hopper,” the small man corrected with a sheepish look on his face; as if he was ashamed that he had to correct Sasaki’s introduction.
“…Right,” Sasaki looked slightly stunned and then immediately corrected himself, “Aaron Hopper. My mistake, I hope you can forgive me.”
Sasaki had a sheepish expression on his face and genuinely looked sorry for his blunder. That didn’t mean Yichen missed the odd flash in his eyes.
“Uh… no… I mean…” the chipmunk nervously flailed his hands as if Sasaki’s apology was a physical thing that he could wave away, before settling into an awkward flush as he looked down, “It’s fine, they’re very similar, you know Hopper, Hooper. Hooper, Hopper. Right…hehe.” His words awkwardly trailed off into a quiet laugh.
Yichen frowned at Henry’s open contempt for Aaron’s stutter, and Sasaki’s subtle look of disapproval and disdain. The man named Taehun looked completely accustomed to the point of indifference towards the scene.
“You’re right, they are pretty similar,” Kyle spoke up jovially, “But Hopper’s a pretty cool last name! Definitely sounds better than Hooters!”
“He said Hooper, not Hooters. Get your mind out of the gutters,” Yichen quipped.
There was a slight pause.
It was unknown if it was because the people around the table were suddenly made aware of Yichen’s presence, or if it was because they were processing his words; but it was soon broken by the sound of a woman’s soft, stifled laughter.
With that, sparse, intermittent laughs floated around the table. The embarrassed flush on Aaron’s face disappeared. Even the cold-faced Taehun had his lips curled into a smile.
The awkward atmosphere dissipated.
“Right… continuing on,we have the lovely lady amongst our sausage-fest, my girlfriend, Emi Jones,” Sasaki joked, earning a playful slap from the small woman sitting close beside him.
The woman had a warm gaze as she looked towards Kyle and then Yichen.
“Aaron and Emi are normal. I don’t know if you’ve noticed by now, but it seems like those who survive the seven-day fever gain powers afterwards.” Sasaki explained methodically, “Of the five of us, only Emi and Aaron haven’t gotten sick. What about you guys? I saw the earth wall earlier, that was your doing, right?”
Despite him directing the question at the both of them, Yichen could tell that he had already assumed that it was Kyle who possessed earth powers.
Kyle didn’t leave him disappointed.
“Yup! That was me, hehe,” Kyle proclaimed a little sheepishly, “Actually I didn’t know I even had powers until that moment. It kinda just came out of nowhere.”
“Oh!” Emi exclaimed softly, “That’s why that wall appeared in front of your car. I was wondering what happened.” She giggled softly.
Kyle blushed deeply while scratching the back of his head, “Yea that was kinda embarrassing.”
Embarrassing indeed, Yichen thought inwardly—commenting on the former’s current appearance rather than his aforementioned blunder.
Sasaki narrowed his gaze a little, seemingly deep in thought.
“It’s still amazing you got that kind of result on your first try,” praised Aaron. It seemed that the young man had bounced back from the earlier confrontation and was now brimming with excitement. “Especially when you made that huge wall that blocked off an entire road. If that was your first go, you have some amazing control!”
“I mean even Sasaki and Henry had to practise a few times to even create a fireball! Oh— but I guess they might be a little different considering they don’t seem to be able to both create and control, it may be a limitation caused by differences in—”
“Stop rambling you f*cking nerd!” BANG! Henry slammed his hand on the coffee table they sat round making a few people jolt backwards in fright.
The room immediately became deathly still.
“That’s dramatic,” Kyle said, slicing through the tension as if it weren’t there. “You got some beef with him or something?”
“I don’t got sh*t,” Henry retorted, “What are you implying?”
“I dunno,” Kyle shrugged nonchalantly, “Just seems a little suspicious…”
“What the f*ck are you going about?” Henry refuted, “You don’t know what you’re talking about. If you had to sit and listen to him rant on and on with no point. Anyone’ll get annoyed—get to the point!”
Henry yelled at Aaron who was sitting across from him.
“Henry don’t be mean,” Emi said softly, yet somehow sternly, “there’s no need for you to yell at Aaron. He was the one who knew about these things in the beginning and was kind enough to tell us. He’s only trying to explain his hypothesis.”
Sasaki immediately backed her words, “That’s right, Henry. Aaron just rambles a bit too much sometimes. It’s not his fault. We should be more accommodating.”
Yichen and Emi simultaneously frowned, but the doubt in Emi’s eyes quickly disappeared when she saw the gentle, unassuming expression on Sasaki’s face.
She turned back to continue softly chiding at Henry, who, although clearly unconvinced, still acquiesced under her gentle, yet stern words.
Yichen, however, was not that easily convinced.
How could he not hear the condescending tone hidden between Sasaki’s words?
Not only that, when Henry interrupted Aaron, he stated that he was annoyed by the smaller man’s quick-paced speech, but Yichen suspected that he wanted to prevent Aaron from revealing certain things.
Judging by Sasaki’s subtle quip about Aaron’s rambling, Yichen understood that Sasaki approved of Henry’s actions.
For reasons unknown, Sasaki was trying to limit the information given to them.
Yichen quietly manoeuvred himself so that he was sitting next to Aaron. Completely disregarding the other conversation at the table, he asked, “How did you know about the powers?”
Startled by the voice that suddenly appeared at his side, Aaron realized that the younger boy was now sitting beside him. Aaron who had shrunk into himself slowly became relaxed once more.
Yichen suddenly thought he resembled a mimosa plant more than a chipmunk.
“P-powers? Oh um… I…” Aaron flushed as if he were a little embarrassed to talk about his source of information.
Yichen patiently waited.
In a quiet, self-conscious voice, Aaron finally said, “I’ve read webnovels about it.”
Yichen was stunned, then with a small smile, he said, “It seems I’ve been reading the wrong things.”
Aaron looked up at the younger with curious eyes.
“I’ve been using my knowledge gleaned off of light novels as well,” Yichen confessed, “however, I don’t think I’ve ever encountered one about powers and zombies.”
Like a bright bulb, Aaron immediately lit up, “Really?!”
The rest of the table immediately looked over to them; however, Yichen and Aaron paid them no attention.
“That’s so cool!” the latter exclaimed, “Have you ever read Chinese Apocalypse novels? I mean if not, then it makes sense that you’ve probably never encountered these kinds of situations. I’ve been a big fan of Chinese webnovels and it seems that this kind of thing has always been their kind of troupe! Of course I’m unsure about other countries’ light novels and webnovels, but things like powers and cultivation have always been so prevalent in their stories about zombie apocalypse that it’s almost a staple.”
Kyle let out a bark of laughter, “Did you hear that Xiao-Chen! You’ve been reading the wrong things this entire time!”
Yichen rolled his eyes, “At least I read something. All you have are TV shows.”
“Hey, TWD is a classic zombie apocalypse show and should be revered as such!” Kyle stated with unwavering confidence.
“I don’t know about that,” Taehun who was silent the entire time finally spoke up, “I’ve only watched the first two seasons, but there’s a bunch of plot holes that didn’t make sense.”
“Plot holes only add character to a show!” Kyle passionately defended, “You can’t look at things like that! You have to judge a show’s other characteristics too!”
“So you don’t deny that there are plot holes.” Yichen quipped without changing his expression.
“That’s not the point!…”
Once again, thanks to the inadvertent efforts of the bright and lively Kyle, the atmosphere of the group became light and friendly once more.
My little sunshine’s
Kyle makes me so stressed 😭 man has me at my toes like man if your not careful you’ll get eaten PLS
But the question is…who?😏 Whahaha me and my dirty mind😖
The s’s on Sasaki means ‘sussy sus’ 🤔
… very sus and kyle is way too trusting it seems
Aah, Kyle… your behaviour is stressing me out lol How can you just spill everything out like that? You wouldn’t/shouldn’t(?) do smth like that even without an apocalypse running around xDD
But hey, Aaron read the right books hahaha. And Sasaki… uff… sus af :’D
Thx for the ch ٩( >ヮ<)۶
Mah boys should leave that sus group as soon as possible.. 😱
Hmmm or maybe his power isnt making himself invisible but sound, because as high lighted zombies either see or hear, but they reacted upon seeing him… or maybr its presence, space? We’ll see later
But going back to the first point, once the extent of his power is shown, wouldn’t the upper people want him
If the scientist aren’t thr usdual evil corrupt mad scientist in apocalypse world i think he would agree, like for example in Quickly wear the face of the devil the arc of the apocalypse scienrist, 1st part showd how the other wanted revenge because of unjust experiments, but the rebirth part shows how it can actually be peaceful if the scientist only took few blood and not treat him as an experimental subject rather than human
Kyle, my dude.. you’re voluntarily delivering yourself to be eaten. ಥ‿ಥ
i have this huge urge to tape kyle’s mouth shut. im the one sweating and anxious because of the information he’s letting out 😩
I agree, Kyle is way too trusting. I hope nothing too bad happens to them with this group of sus people!
Also, there’s a small typo — the word is “trope” not “troupe.”
Love how through their bantering they break the awkward (and suspicious) atmosphere.